For the First Time
by pinkpen23
Summary: A one-shot, song-fic.  Post DH  but not by much .  Ron and Hermione have a fight and then try to work things out.  *REVIEW PLEASE!*


_**She's all laid up in bed with a broken heart**_

Hermione lay in her bed, crying. She had a fist of tissues in one hand and was clutching her comforter with the other. Her heart was broken, and she felt as if no one could say or do anything about it. Harry and Ginny had both tried to come over to console her, but she refused to let either of them in.

All of a sudden, Hermione heard a noise. She sprung up from her bed and looked towards her door. No one was there…he wasn't there. It was just Crookshanks playing with one of his cat toys. As Hermione lay her head back down, she glanced at the nightstand to her left. His watch, his beautiful golden watch, was still there. This only made her cry more.

Why did they have to fight? They were doing so well, and then, all of a sudden, something just sort of snapped between them. They started arguing all of the time, and couldn't agree on anything. The last fight they had had, the one that happened three days ago, was the worst. They both said things they didn't mean, harsh things that would linger between them for years to come.

Hermione replayed the scene in her mind. Both of them in her living room, red faced and screaming. Neither was backing down, and the fight was escalating fast.

The thought of it all brought fresh tears to Hermione's eyes as she threw her face into her pillow and cried some more.

_**While I'm drinking Jack all alone in my local bar**_

Ron sat at the local pub alone, drinking his third drink of the night. Harry had come by earlier, but left after he realized that Ron wasn't in the mood for talking. Ron only wanted to sit and drink. He wanted to numb the pain he was feeling, the pain that consumed his entire body.

How could he have said the thing he did to Hermione? How could she have said those things to him? They had been doing so well! They had been so in sync with one another for the longest time, and then something just broke between them.

_**And we don't know how we got into this mad situation, only doing things out of frustration**_

How did they even get to be like that? Ron suspected that it was a few different things. For him, he knew his anger probably came from the intense Auror training, which often left him feeling weak and inadequate. For her, he guessed that it had to do with the still strained relationship she had with her parents after she had found them.

_**Trying to make it work, but, man, these times are hard**_

He assumed that these things began to add up and began to cause a strain that neither of them knew how to deal with. He knew, though, that she was the only one who could help him deal with his insecurities, and he suspected that he was the person who could best help her deal with her parents.

_**She needs me now but I can't seem to find the time  
>I got a new job now on the unemployment line <strong>_

The thing was, though, that Ron was so busy trying to excel in Auror training that he had unconsciously begun to overlook Hermione. Ron took another long swig of his drink as he pondered this thought. He knew he needed to go back, but he didn't know what to do or say.

_**And we don't know how we got into this mess, is it God's test? Someone help us 'cause we're doing our best  
>Trying to make things work, but, man, these times are hard<strong>_

After sitting and thinking for a little while longer, Ron came to the conclusion that he wasn't going to come up with an easy and simple solution. He was going to have to go back and fix things, even if it meant things would get messy.

Standing up to leave, Ron surveyed the pub one last time. He noticed a young couple, similar in looks to Hermione and himself, sitting at a small table in the back, sipping wine and talking intimately. This struck an idea in Ron.

"Excuse me," Ron began.

"Yeah?" the bartender responded.

"You wouldn't happen to have any bottles of wine for sale, would you?"

"Just the cheap stuff," the bartender grunted.

"That's fine," Ron conceded. "I'll take two bottles."

"Any particular kind?"

Ron looked back at the couple for a moment before saying, "Whatever they're having."

The bartender looked at the couple, gave Ron a curious look, and then went to the back in search of the wine. Ron anxiously awaited the bartender and silently prayed that when he got there, he wouldn't be met with angry fists or, worse, birds.

After lying in bed for what seemed like an eternity, Hermione noticed that her stomach was growling. She wiped her red, wet eyes and got up to go to the kitchen. She stood mindlessly in front of the refrigerator, hungry but making no real attempt to pick something to eat.

Just then, she heard a key enter her door. Hermione froze and listened as someone unlocked the door. Slowly, she turned her head towards the living room and watched as the one and only Ron Weasley stepped inside.

"Hey," he said quietly, looking at her.

"What…what are you doing here?" Hermione asked, feeling a lump forming in her throat.

"Well, I bought some wine, and I thought we could sit down and, you know, talk?"

"Talk?" Hermione squeaked, well-aware that tears were forming in her eyes.

"Yeah, talk," Ron answered, pulling the first bottle out of the paper bag.

_**But we're gonna stop by drinking our cheap bottles of wine**_

"Okay," Hermione said, sniffling a little bit.

Soon, the two were sitting in on the couch, sipping wine and talking. They started off by apologizing for the awful fight that had occurred between them, but then moved on to more important things.

_**Sit talking up all night, saying things we haven't for a while, a while, yeah**_

"Hermione," Ron said, "You know that I love you. At least, I hope you do. I love you, and I know that I don't tell you as often as I should. Things with work have been so stressful lately, and I have realized that I have unfairly begun to neglect you because of it. I'm so sorry, Hermione."

"It's okay," Hermione began, "It's not like this is entirely fault. I know I've been pretty difficult to deal with lately, what with how things are with my parents."

At the mention of her parents, Hermione began to cry earnestly. Ron put his wine glass down for a moment and consoled Hermione in a giant hug.

"It's okay. Times are hard, but they're going to get better."

"But shouldn't the hardest part be over? The war's over. There's peace now. Why can't things just get better?" Hermione questioned.

"Hermione, the hardest part _is_ over. We're just going through a rough patch. But we're going to make it through, I promise you. I am not going to abandon you. I swore to myself I would never do that to you again after I left during the search for the Horcruxes."

Hermione looked up at Ron with watery eyes, and gave a slight smile. "Ron, remember the night after the war ended?"

"Yes," Ron said instantly. It had been such an emotional night. He was grieving and walking on air at the same time. After spending the entire day comforting his family, Ron had found Hermione. He insisted that they talk, and the two wound up talking for hours right by the lake.

"Well, I was wondering if maybe you could just repeat those things you told me that night. All the things you told me about us, you know? I think it would be good to hear right now."

"Sure, if you want me to," Ron said.

"I do," Hermione replied.

"Okay," Ron said, taking himself back to that late night on the Hogwarts grounds out by the lake. "Well Hermione, throughout the years I began to realize something about you. You weren't just a regular friend. You were different. Sure, we bickered incessantly, but there was still just something about you, something I didn't feel with anyone else. And after spending the past year in a tent with you searching for Horcruxes, I have come to the conclusion that you are different because I love you. No, I don't just fancy you. I love you. I know I do, Hermione. There is something about you that draws me to you; it's like a magnetic force. It really is. You are so incredibly endearing in everything you do. You care so much. You cared enough about bringing peace back into a world filled with unrest that you sacrificed your own feelings to stay with Harry when I asked you to leave. You cared so much that you dismissed your feelings for the greater good. That's something I couldn't do. I'm a selfish git, and you know that. Anyway, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I have to, Hermione, or else I don't know how I will live. No one makes me feel the way you do. And I don't care how much we may bicker. I want to make this work because I love you with everything I have."

_**We're smiling but we're close to tears, even after all these years. We just now got the feeling that we're meeting for the first time**_

When Ron was done speaking, he and Hermione were both in tears. Hermione, however, was smiling though her tears and looked up at Ron for a moment, staring straight into his crystal blue eyes.

"I want to make it work too," she whispered. "I want to make it work because I love you too."

At that moment, Ron grabbed Hermione and kissed her passionately. Ron noticed that Hermione was crying while they kissed, and Hermione noticed the same about Ron.

"Blimey," Ron said as they stopped kissing, "I love you so much."

"I love you too," Hermione said, taking a sip of her wine.

"We're going to make this work. Everything's going to be okay," Ron said, grabbing both of Hermione's hands.

"I know," she answered him. "I trust you."

"Good," Ron said. "I'm not going to give up on us. Ever."

**_A/N: Just something random that came into my head as I was driving. Please review! I'd love anything constructive anyone can tell me!_**


End file.
